Nintendo's Response to NPD Sales: <cite>Pokemon</cite> Is "Evergreen"

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Nintendo's Response to NPD Sales: <cite>Pokemon</cite> Is "Evergreen"

Nintendo has, of course, issued a quick response to this month's NPD sales, which saw Wii and DS outpace every other piece of game hardware and tallied up 1.75 million sales of Pokemon. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says the series, like Barbara Streisand's love, is ageless and evergreen:

Nothing is more valuable in the entertainment world than an evergreen franchise. These new Pokemon titles have cemented their place alongside the most enduring intellectual properties of the book, music and movie industries.

Well, I don't know if I'd go comparing Pikachu to Narnia just yet, but ten years of ridiculous sales is nothing to sneeze at in this volatile biz. The full statement after the jump.

Nintendo News: Nintendo Runs the Table in April Sales

Already riding a streak as America's No. 1 seller of video game consoles,No. 1 seller of portable game systems and No. 1 publisher of video games,Nintendo added more chips to its pile in April – with not just one, but thecountry's four best-selling games.

According to independent sales data gathered by the NPD Group, the twobest-selling games in April were Pokemon(R) Diamond and Pokemon(R) Pearl,exclusively for the Nintendo DS(TM) hand-held game system, followed by SuperPaper Mario(TM) and Wii Play(TM) for the Wii(TM) home video game system.Combined sales for the two related Pokemon titles exceeded 1.75 million unitsin just 14 days of availability during the reporting period.

The DS remained the most popular game system of any kind in April, withprojected sales of more than 470,000 units. At the same time, the Wii fromNintendo, despite nearly universal sold-out status, was still purchased bytwice as many consumers as any other home game console, according to the NPDdata. Unit sales of 360,000 Wii systems in April bring the console'sinstalled base in America to nearly 2.5 million in less than six months on themarket.

"Nothing is more valuable in the entertainment world than an evergreenfranchise," says Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO, Nintendo of America."These new Pokemon titles have cemented their place alongside the mostenduring intellectual properties of the book, music and movie industries. Andthat appeal will expand even further with the introduction of Pokemon(R)Battle Revolution to our Wii home console next month."